The Labor Department released its unemployment report for December on Friday. It showed the economy produced about 256,000 jobs in the month. That was enough to lower the unemployment rate back to 4.1%.
Here are the relevant statistics for the month of December:
SIZE OF THE CIVILIAN WORK FORCE
168,547,000
OFFICIAL NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED WORKERS
6,886,000
OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
4.1%
DEMOGRAPHIC BREAKDOWN OF OFFICIAL UNEMPLOYMENT
Adult men...............3.7%
Adult women...............3.8%
Teens (16-19)...............12.4%
Whites...............3.6%
Blacks...............6.1%
Asians...............3.5%
Hispanics...............5.1%
Less than HS diploma...............5.6%
HS graduate...............4.3%
Some college...............3.5%
Bachelor's deg. or more...............2.4%
NUMBER OF MARGINALLY-ATTACHED WORKERS (unemployed but not counted)
1,562,000
MORE REALISTIC NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (official + marginally-attached)
8,448,000
MORE REALISTIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
5.0%
